Dana White’s Insistence That Nate Diaz Is Turning Down UFC Fights Is Much Ado About Nothing

Nate Diaz is once again back in the news for not having a fight. It’s no surprise, his fans want to know where he is despite saying multiple times that he’s taking the year off to cross-train. But once the rumors of a welterweight title fight heated up, the year-long question of “when will Nate fight again” has enthralled the world of cage fighting. Especially after these latest tweets from Adam Hill, who interviewed Whtie for Las Vegas’ Review-Journal:

"Nate Diaz has turned down a fight with everyone on the roster. We've been offering him fights for a year and a half." -Dana on Nate

This may look bad to some, but it’s common practice for the UFC. They are contractually obligated to offer fights to their contractors in order to keep them under contract, and that’s what they’re doing with Diaz — keeping their contract honored, even if it’s for fights he doesn’t want. On paper, some of them look good — he’s reportedly turned down Tony Ferguson, Eddie Alvarez, and possibly others, but Nate has a reason not to fight, and it’s come up many, many times before: Money.

Back in May, the UFC tried to get Diaz to fight Tony Ferguson for an interim lightweight title, but Diaz told Bret Okamoto from ESPN that he’s simply not interested if they aren’t going to pay him. He also had some evergreen words for Dana White: “He’s making stuff up because that’s what he needs to do. He’s trying to get me to argue with him, but there’s no argument necessary. It’s cool. If I’m not worth sh*t, why am I all over the news with people trying to figure out what’s what, when I’m not fighting?”

As someone who prided themselves on fighting anyone, anywhere over the last ten years, it seems odd that Diaz is coming up on three total fights over the last two years, but he’s made bank against McGregor, and his star, despite not fighting since August of 2016, is still brighter than ever. As he said to his training partner Andre Ward: “I just think about, I’m not turning down any fight ever. They might be turning down the deal. So it’s on them. It’s not in my hands because I’ll fight when you pay.”